Leisure

The Four C Notes will celebrate their 10-year anniversary in 2023 with a series of events throughout the Chicago area. The Midwest’s only tribute group dedicated to recreating the music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, the ensemble was founded by John Michael Coppola, who understudied the role of Frankie Valli for the Broadway hit “Jersey Boys.” The group’s 2023 season will kick off with a show on May 24 at Metropolis Performing Arts Center in Arlington Heights and culminate on Aug. 6 during the Italian fest in Naperville. Other shows throughout the year will include engagements at the …

Mozart may have been born and raised in Austria, but he was among classical music’s most “Italian” composers, with most of his operas written in the bel canto style and the Italian language. It should come as no surprise that “Mozart Immersive: The Soul of a Genius,” currently on display at Lighthouse ArtSpace Chicago, has deep Italian roots. The 360-degree audiovisual experience is the brainchild of Artistic Creator Massimiliano Siccardi and Composer and Arranger Luca Longobardi. “With this piece, we wanted to represent every part of Mozart’s life, from his happy times as a child prodigy and throughout his amazingly …

On Feb. 6, a pair of Lyric Opera favorites, soprano Tamara Wilson and tenor Russell Thomas, teamed up with music director Enrique Mazzola to showcase excerpts from Giuseppe Verdi’s operatic opus. Included were the shimmering overture to “La forza del destino,” favorite arias from “Don Carlos” and “Simon Boccanegra,” and mesmerizing duets from “Aida” and “Otello.” Rarely performed duets and arias rounded out the program, which the Lyric dubbed “Verdi Voices.” That concert is now enshrined on the Lyric website and can be streamed for free. To view, click here.  

Riccardo Muti marks his 13th and final season as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s music director in 2022-23. Once his tenure is complete, he and the orchestra will have performed more than 500 concerts together at Symphony Center, across the U.S. and around the world. Muti will lead nine programs in 2022/23, including Mussorgsky’s “Pictures From an Exhibition” from Oct. 6-8 and Respighi’s “Pines of Rome” from May 25-27, 2023. (cso.org) A live recording of Muti directing the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Mascagni’s “Cavalleria rusticana” will soon be available. To learn more, click here.  

Thirty-One Days of Italians had released its 2021-22 List with a notable Italian American selected for every day in October. On this year’s list are explorers Eusebio Francesco Chini and Enrico de Tonti, ice-rink surfacing machine inventor Frank Zamboni, best-selling author Angelo Siringo, and Francis Rogallo, known as the father of modern hang gliding, For the complete list, click here.

Singer/songwriter Iliana Incandela was all set to marry music producer Nomad Saint when the pandemic struck, postponing the event. Turning her attention inward, Incandela decided to sort out a toxic relationship through the song “Bad Company.” “Nomad made the track, and I wrote the lyrics. Then we recorded the vocals in my closet!” she explains. Produced in English and Italian, “It’s based on an Italian proverb my mother would always say to me: ‘Meglio sola che male accompagnata’ (Better alone than in bad company).” Iliana is the daughter of local singing and dining legend Enzo Incandela. Her music is available …

When retired Circuit Court Judge Gloria Coco isn’t teaching classes at the IIT-Chicago Kent College of Law, she’s on the hunt for her next acting opportunity. A member of the Screen Actors Guild, she recently landed a role in Amazon Prime’s sci-fi thriller “Utopia.” The eight-episode series stars Chicago native John Cusack and Rainn Wilson of “The Office.” The show follows a group of internet pen pals who band together to save the world. When a pandemic strikes, the characters played by Cusack and Wilson must oversee competing vaccine proposals from Tomi Tambler, a by-the-books FDA agent played by Coco, …

Entertainer Tony Ocean has launched a daily program on the “Tony Ocean Show” Facebook page. Billed as “the little show about big things,” “Ocean’s Pit” airs Mondays through Fridays at noon. Ocean brings in guests from all walks of life to discuss movies, TV shows and a variety of other topics, including the host’s impersonation of Dean Martin in the long-running show “The Rat Pack is Back.” On Tuesdays, he takes his microphone to visit local restaurants, and on Thursdays, he co-hosts with his wife, Laura.  

The Lyric Opera of Chicago will showcase lesser-known gems by beloved Italian composers in a virtual concert curated and hosted by Lyric’s Music Director Designate Enrique Mazzola and presented by the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center. With Maestro Mazzola at the piano, members of the Ryan Opera Center 2020-21 ensemble will perform songs by Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi, Puccini and Mascagni, all lovingly selected by Mazzola. The ensemble includes sopranos Maria Novella Malfatti and Denis Vélez; mezzo-sopranos Katherine Beck, Katherine DeYoung and Kathleen Felty; tenors Martin Luther Clark and Lunga Eric Hallam; baritones Leroy Davis and Ricardo …

Anyone who has attended a presentation by Lyric Opera Music Director Designate Enrique Mazzola knows what a dynamic speaker he is. Now the whole world can bask in his unique presence via an original and engaging web series dubbed “Breaking Down the Score: Attila.” Each of the 12 episodes in this series features a personal interpretation and reading by Maestro Mazzola of a musical number from Verdi’s early opera “Attila.” Launched in October and running through mid-December, the entire series can be viewed by subscribing to the Lyric’s YouTube channel. To view current and previous episodes, click here.